As children, many of us are fascinated with the process by which a bruco (masculine, plural: bruchi) – the Italian word for caterpillar – turns into a butterfly (farfalla). The story begins with a caterpillar hatching from an egg (uovo). The caterpillar then stuffs itself with leaves, growing fatter and longer until one day, it …
At some point in time, we’ve all found ourselves laughing uncontrollably at a funny situation or a hilarious joke. In English, we call this unstoppable laughter the giggles whereas in Italian, it is called la ridarella (feminine). The word comes from the verb ridere meaning to laugh. To say that you’ve got the giggles in Italian, …
The word for aunt in Italian is zia (feminine, plural: zie). It comes from the Latin word thia and, as in English, is used to describe the sister of one’s mother or father, or the wife of one’s uncle (zio). To describe the latter, the term zia acquisita (aunt by marriage) is often used. Mia zia abita in Italia da dieci anni. My aunt …
When I lived in Turin, I always looked forward to paying a visit to my local panetteria (feminine, plural: panetterie), which is the Italian word for bakery. In addition to various types of homemade bread (pane), the counter was always piled up with breadsticks (grissini), pastries (pasticcini), slices of focaccia, farinata and pizza, and various …
One of the most useful words you’ll come across in the Italian language is bisogno (masculine, plural: bisogni). On its own, it translates as need or desire but when combined with the verb avere (to have) and the preposition di (of ) or the conjunction che (that), it corresponds to the verb to need. The …
The word for sunset in Italian is tramonto (masculine, plural: tramonti). Derived from the verb tramontare (to set, fade, wane), it is a combination of the word monte (mount) and the prefix tra-. The latter normally means between, but in this case, the definition is closer to beyond. Together they form ‘to go beyond the …